Dominate the Super Bowl

Chapter 547: 546 A Farce Chapter 547: 546 A Farce Time turned back slightly, to the end of last November.

With the regular season still in full swing and Thanksgiving just having ended, the League and teams were poised to enter the sprint in December to vie for playoff positions, but a major news story broke out of New York.

New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo announced that this coming Sunday when the New York Giants face the Oakland Raiders, the team would be led by Geno Smith as the starting quarterback.

This meant that Eli Manning, who had been the starting quarterback for the New York Giants for fourteen years and the face of the team, was benched, and his record of consecutive regular season starts in the League finally halted at 210 games.

A blockbuster announcement!

Although Eli’s entire career was full of controversy, nobody expected it to end in such a trifling manner, swiftly dominating the front pages of major media outlets.

Speaking of Eli’s career, this two-time Super Bowl Champion and Super Bowl MVP, known as the “Brady Killer,” has always been one of the central figures in the league’s whirlpool of controversies.

Is he considered an elite quarterback?

Will he make it into the Hall of Fame?

What should his historical status in the NFL be?

And so forth.

In the eyes of his supporters, Eli was one of the top clutch performers in the league, the arch-nemesis of the New England Patriots, off the field a gentleman known for his elegance, sense of humor, and dedication to charitable work.

To his detractors, Eli was always seen as overrated.

During his fourteen seasons with the New York Giants, he only led the team to the playoffs six times.

Apart from the two victorious seasons, all other attempts ended in the first round, especially in 2013 when he controversially demanded a huge contract despite the team’s declining performance.

However.

No one could deny that Eli had become a significant symbol for the New York Giants and even the NFL, becoming part of American culture.

Once during an NBA game, Marc Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies threw a court-spanning pass after snagging a defensive rebound, which led to a teammate scoring a slam dunk.

The commentator, full of passion, exclaimed, “Touchdown!

Gasol broke down the opponents’ defense with a long pass just like Eli Manning!”

But the guest commentator didn’t hold back, “No, no, no, Eli Manning could never make such a pass, that was a Drew Brees’ signature move.”

During the following timeout, the two commentators engaged in a no-holds-barred debate about Eli Manning right there in the NBA arena, much to the pleasure of the audience who eagerly joined in.

This was the Eli Manning whose less-than-dignified departure from the New York Giants once again set off a media frenzy.

The entire league unanimously supported Eli, including players from the Oakland Raiders, the Giants’ next opponent; not to mention former New York Giants players and coaches who all publicly disagreed with the decision, expressing their condemnation.

Especially after a video of Eli holding back tears during an interview was released, social media steadfastly believed that a man who had served the team for fourteen years and had become a cultural icon in the city deserved better treatment.

Of course, discordant voices always existed.

Not only did “someone within the league” Bart take a dim view of Li Wei, he was also dissatisfied with Eli, directly citing Eli’s bottom-ranking stats among starting quarterbacks in the 2013 season with disdain.

He firmly insisted that Eli should have been cut from the team four seasons ago.

This time, Bart garnered considerable support.

“The Giants owe Eli nothing, they have the right to make decisions that benefit them without considering the other party’s feelings.”

“I have never considered him a Hall of Fame player.”

Although some argued that since the 2013 season, the New York Giants’ offensive line was the worst in the league, making Eli’s efforts as a traditional pocket quarterback all the more challenging; yet, these dissenting voices remained steadfast in their views.

However, these schadenfreude comments were ultimately in the minority; mainstream public opinion completely sided with Eli.

Reason?

Complex, yet not complex.

First, the person involved.

Little Manning was benched, so who was the replacement?

Geno Smith, whose professional career included a total of twenty-eight touchdowns accompanied by thirty-six interceptions and seventeen fumbles, had long been proven to be one of the worst quarterbacks in the League.

Moreover, his contract with the New York Giants was expiring at the end of the season, and he would not be the future of the New York Giants.

So, where was the future?

Davis Webb, selected in the third round of this year’s draft by the New York Giants, possessed arm strength but lacked passing accuracy and defensive reading skills, clearly having a lot of room to grow.

The point was, the quarterback replacing Little Manning wasn’t the rookie Webb either.

Inside the League, Lawson offered his professional opinion, “If the New York Giants were intent on developing Webb, the right time to make the switch should have been Week 7 of the regular season.”

At that time, the New York Giants had one win and six losses, with only a 0.5% chance of making the playoffs.

If by then it was clear that Little Manning was not the future of the team, they should have prepared to bring Webb onto the field, rather than dragging their feet to the current situation, which more resembled a childish tantrum.

This also touches on the second point.

Second, timing.

Setting aside whether Lawson’s opinion was right, let’s look at the timing chosen by the New York Giants:

With only five games left in the regular season, a record of two wins and nine losses, playoffs hopes completely extinguished, what followed was just running out the schedule to see the final draft positions.

At this point, pulling Little Manning for Geno Smith was utterly tanking.

To tank was one thing, but the New York Giants didn’t even provide Little Manning with a chance to say goodbye, nor did they give the fans one last opportunity to see Little Manning play at home.

This was tantamount to turning off all the lights on Little Manning’s farewell stage, not even leaving a chance for a final bow for this 14-year veteran.

From an emotional perspective, this indeed was disrespectful and even shameful toward Little Manning.

It’s no wonder then that everyone unanimously stood by Little Manning’s side.

More ironically, after the season ended, the New York Giants also fired head coach McAdoo, leaving nothing but a complete mess after losing face and all.

Because of this, when John Mara met with Li Wei at Madison Square Garden, Donald thought it was a strategic meeting.

From every perspective, the New York Giants needed to exert a great effort to recover from this PR disaster, thus the top brass stepped in directly.

But now it appeared, the top brass aimed for more than that.

Public relation was one aspect.

Strategy, on the other hand, was another.

It should have been well before Mara’s meeting with Li Wei that they were seeking their own quarterback successor, and choosing Alex Smith was undoubtedly a stroke of genius.